The term "hysteria" has not been used in the title for any disorder in Chapter V(F) of
ICD-10 because of its many and varied shades of meaning. Instead, "dissociative" has
been preferred, to bring together disorders previously termed hysteria, of both
dissociative and conversion types. This is largely because patients with the dissociative
and conversion varieties often share a number of other characteristics, and in addition
they frequently exhibit both varieties at the same or different times. It also seems
reasonable to presume that the same (or very similar) psychological mechanisms are
common to both types of symptoms.
There appears to be widespread international acceptance of the usefulness of grouping
together several disorders with a predominantly physical or somatic mode of
presentation under the term "somatoform". For the reasons already given, however, this
new concept was not considered to be an adequate reason for separating amnesias and
fugues from dissociative sensory and motor loss.
If multiple personality disorder (F44.81) does exist as something other than a
culture-specific or even iatrogenic condition, then it is presumably best placed among the
dissociative group.
